Bexhill home ‘requires improvement’

A care home has come out of special measures but still needs to make further improvements to its service, inspectors have ruled.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) published its report into Green Bank in Hastings Road last week following the inspection in May.

The CQC placed the home, which cares for elderly people with dementia, people at risk of falls and those with long-term healthcare needs, into special measures last September following several breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

These included shortfalls in the management of medicines, cleanliness and maintenance of the premises and ‘insufficient numbers of staff to keep people safe’.

The report said: “We undertook an inspection on May 23 and 24 to follow up on whether required actions had been taken. We found the warning notices had been met. Although we found improvements had been made there remained areas that required improvement. However, due to the improvements made the service has now been taken out of special measures.

“Although people told us they felt safe living at the service we found the provider had not taken adequate steps to ensure people’s safety in relation to medicines and risks related to people requiring special diets.

“We found kitchen staff had not consistently followed basic food hygiene principles in relation to storage of food.”

Inspectors said care records were maintained safely and information kept confidentially but some records were not up to date.

Sigrid Pillow, owner of Green Bank, said: “Last year we had a disastrous report but we have all worked tirelessly to improve and think we have succeeded. This second report says ‘needs improvement’ but we are back on target and any criticism is taken well.”